ever feel like you've been running non-stop for days on end? not sustainable, but i'm not seeing any relief in sight.
planning on getting home tomorrow--been gone since monday. rain will probably ruin any aspirations for a car show or two this weekend.
i'm just gonna post this for now, as i gotta get at least a few hours of sleep, before getting up and doing it all over again.
supposed to rain again tonight. guess i'll head to my mom's house for a couple of days. also, my daughter will be flying in mid-week. i'm already overloaded with work for the next couple of weeks, so i should be insane by next weekend.
posting one from the fairgrounds, since i didn't go to the swap meet today. true, it was raining at five in the morning, but it cleared up by lunchtime.
just love the curves on the back ends of fleetlines. bridgetown is always found here, along the bleachers. like they must always be first in line at the gates, at five in the morning. actually earlier. i get there at five and they're already in place, at least a few, staking out the row.
we just got back from a walk uptown. passed the whittier community association office, where they post flyers for all the local activities going on, up on their windows.
this year, the annual uptown car show has been moved up from mid august to june fourth.
in a normal world, i'd have said that's great, since it's always hotter than hell in august. but it's not perfect, and my world has been a bit of a crazy whirlwind lately. so, checking my calendar, i've just noticed that i have to catch a train to san diego that same day. perfect.
i can make it work, though, since the show is physically, just up the street. i'll just have to be sure to be all packed and ready to go the night before.
we're usually up and out by five-thirty in the morning anyway. organizers are up and telling vendors where to set up, and cars are stuck in purgatory, i mean, staging.
we'll just get up and out, shoot the cars for a few hours, as usual, but then i'll go home, download the pictures, and head to the station, instead of back to the show. just sucks that i won't be able to do anything with them until i get back a week later.
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shot this car before, at a different show, from the back end. even sold the file for cheap, to an unnamed shop not too far away, with their idea of putting it on tshirts. perhaps they didn't have a shop to do it, or the cost prevented it.
i suspect, the more likely scenario is that they just gave the owner a nice print of the car. enjoy, i guess.
it has become increasingly clear, that i can't take a day off without working enough overtime to equal two or three regular days. and still, today, i've logged in, and worked on one job. over the weekend, i will have to go to the office, probably, to rework another job before monday. that one deals with a giant spreadsheet, that i'd rather work on at my desk, with two screens. i have two screens at home, but the remote connection won't let me use a second one. so stupid.
monday will start another week from hell. we'll be down one designer, since it's spring break for his kid. then the following week, the other designer will take off for three plus weeks, for her annual trip to the other side of the world.
going to rain this weekend. sucks, since sunday is the swap meet at pomona. camera is waterproof, but not the lenses, so blows that idea out of the water.
spring is getting closer, so more shows are being added to my dance card. looking forward to it. please let me know if there's anything interesting not already on my list to the right. send me an email. or hand a flyer to my better half—that works too.
motorcycle from the little show at the vfw. sometimes i just shoot them. a different challenge, to get a decent angle, without chopping the handlebars out of the picture.
1962 chevrolet impala
looking at my project for work. i don't want to do it, but i really should. will just hurt less on monday, if i get it out of the way today.
i could still make it to the car show. get my better half to drop me off. think we're going to walk uptown for bfast now, so maybe later...
impala from the new year's show at the dam. sparkly. caught my eye. one of the few low riders i shot that day. just love the details these guys add to the cars—really remarkable artistry. i think maybe this one is right on the cusp of doing too much of a good thing.
two hour drive home. wanted to go to frisco's, but i see they already got shut down on that one. damn. briefly considered heading to whittier blvd, or, just going uptown and waiting to see if anyone drives by the theatre.
nah, might to the whittier community car show in the morning, and i gotta get some sleep. not seeing any other show going on at the same time, or i'd probably go somewhere else for a change. also think i have to work all weekend to meet an arbitrary deadline, on a job that has been repeatedly pushed aside.
another car from last month at pomona. nice car, not overdone. almost thought it was a merc, but the chrome is all ford. nice chop job.
1954 cadillac
been away from my blog for a while. just needed a break, recharge from my daily grind. should probably think about scheduling a vacation, and do it, instead of just saying i need to schedule a vacation.
i've mostly just been happy enough to see old cars drive by here and there, sometimes through the window, or while i'm walking uptown; other times, driving down the freeway. mini car shows. just for me.
the week has already started stupid, so i expect it will continue through friday. and so it goes...
saw this cadillac at pomona last month. haven't decided yet if i'll go in march. i know my better half wants to go. just been difficult to wake up early sometimes; i haven't been sleeping well lately. working so hard, can't slow my mind down at the end of the day. and don't recommend something to mellow me out...i don't smoke. there are other ways.
i sometimes take pics of these rat rods. canabalized old cars frankensteined into something more interesting, usually feature fun, unfinished textures.
there weren't too many at the super cruise, at least during the few hours i was there. this one happened to park across from the dukes' cars i was shooting, so when people stepped away from it, i took a quick detour to it. only took a couple of shots. liked this one best.
sorry, another shot from the swap meet. it's coming up again. thinking about going, assuming the current mid-february heatwave breaks, and becomes a more sensible mid-sixties cool.
wondering why most of the truck seems to be lovingly finshed out and polished, and the roof was left raw? some sort of mind fuck--"psyche!" it's a very nice vehicle otherwise.
today was one of those days that reminds me that i'm a square peg in a round hole. one that reminds me of the twisted sister video, with the guy screaming, "what do you want to do with your life?!!???!!!," just without the flying saliva.
well, of course. i want to rock.
it's annual review time at work. and every year, you are required to go through the same steps: self assessment, goal setting, boss and/or peer review, score yourself, management scoring, etc. you play the game, and at the end, you hope you get a small raise, and they recognize and still find you valuable.
the process is great for number crunchers and sales guys. they can easily set goals and gather numbers to inflate how productive they were for the year. they are good with words and people, and know how to play the game...show me the money.
as a designer, i find it painful to try to rate, quantify, and somehow measure what i do into their format for determining compensation increases. i'm more of a support system, a reactionary function, to all the bees in the hive that make the colony function. and i'm a bumbling introverted drone, happy to just sit at my computer and get the work done.
i don't go out, into the fray, and just out of the blue, decide i'll just whip myself up a little piece of collateral, and see if it's useful. i'm busy. i don't have time to think of goals. i have time to think of burn out, and that's always just on the edge of my mind.
so, i have a new / old boss. i used to work directly for him, several years ago; then he moved up the ladder, and it was more indirectly. now i think his ladder went sideways or folded, or something, and i'm working for him again.
he's used to dealing with management types. he thinks things out profusely. he uses lots of words.
we met to discuss what my goals for the year should be. i never know what to say to that question every year. it's not like i set out each year, planning to do x, y and z, and maybe w. i barely think about planning day to day, much less what i want to do when i grow up. you know, justify why you're here.
i don't think it went well. i don't bullshit well, and speak my mind when asked directly. i'm perfectly happy with what i do, why do you want me to change it? i felt like i was in the principal's office, and didn't adequately express what it is i thought i should be planning to do, nor was i able to suggest ways to be even more productive than i am.
i do go out and keep my skills up to date. i work fast, under pressure. i get shit done, and i do it well. i've done it for a long time, so i would hope so.
he wants something written, more to the point than the previous boss. cross the t, dot the i. not quite a literary essay, but it feels like it should be.
times like these, i miss a former boss, at a former company—the one who micro managed, to the point of writing everyone's review and goals, and basically filling out the form for you. just sign here, and here's your check.
anyway, i gotta come up with three or four things i can scribble on the form, and maybe, maybe not, attain them next year. he says whether i meet expectations or not, does not count toward the overall rating. ya, right. i believe that.
i could only come up with somehow incorporating getting behind a camera, and becoming a portrait photographer to the executives and sales people, or helping someone else do it, since i end up with the files anyway, and cleaning them up. but i'm not good with people...i shoot cars. and that would be in addition to a full workload.
he wants me to get out of my comfort zone. i already do that, just not in the office. thank you very much. pretty sure he's going to want me to do some sort of presentation, or knowledge sharing. can i just take this ice pick and stick it right...here...it really would be easier for me.
i want to rock. just not in front of an audience.
these past few months have just been incredibly busy. my son got married, then my better half's uncle was hospitalized and then funeralized; last weekend i got a last minute invite to my new daughter-in-law's brothers wedding. that was interesting, since i'd never met the bride or her side of the family.
i arrived early, and went to sit in the mostly empty chapel. didn't take long before i had a man inquiring which i was there for, bride or groom. basically said, groom's sister just married my son—just figured it was simpler. later found out that was the bride's father. no, i'm not a wedding crasher.
still, later, i was walking around with my camera with a big lens, and any time i caught the bride's eye, i could see the who the hell is that look. i think at the end of the day, i realized that i never went over to introduce myself to them. lol. well all the best to them. i'll let my new daughter-in-law forward my pics to the happy couple.
top these events off with a big meeting at work, and i've been a very busy girl. and when i did find myself at home, i was too tired to turn on the computer, much less my better half. :)
another morning shot from early morning at pomona. just loved the light hitting this fleetmaster.